Jamal Adams misses Seahawks training camp Thursday to seek opinions on hand

RENTON — After the first day of Seahawks training camp coach Pete Carroll cited as one of the real positives the presence of both of the team’s star safeties — Jamal Adams and Quandre Diggs — back on the field after offseason surgeries.

Just 24 hours later, only one of them was on the field with Adams taking the day off while starting to get opinions on why his surgically repaired hand continues to bother him.

Adams revealed in the spring that he had the two middle fingers on his left hand fused after he dislocated each of them multiple times over the past few seasons.

Adams spoke enthusiastically then of feeling that the surgeries would finally allow him to play without issues with his left hand.

But Carroll said Adams felt that his hand “just wasn’t right” during Wednesday’s opening practice and that he is “going to take some time to figure it out. … He’s getting some opinions about it. So we’ll see what that means. He’s looking at some stuff to try to get things figured out.”

Carroll said he couldn’t say how long Adams would be out or if he might need surgery.

The uncertainty makes it hard to read into whether this is a potentially serious situation for Adams, who as he noted in the spring has played through the hand issues the last few years. He also had a second shoulder surgery in December which caused him to miss the last five games of the season. But Carroll said the shoulder is fine and that it is the fingers that are the issue.

“He just felt something,” Carroll said. “It didn’t feel right. So we’ve just got to get it checked out. He’s really concerned. He’s really upset that he has to miss anything. But we jumped right at the chance to take care of it and see what’s going on right now.”

While the hope is the issue is minor and Adams doesn’t miss much time — and certainly not any games once the regular season starts — the setback continues what has been an unfortunately injury-plagued two-plus years with the Seahawks since he was acquired in a trade with the Jets in July 2020.

Adams missed only two games in three seasons with the Jets.

But he played just 12 games each of his first two years with the Seahawks dealing with a variety of injuries, most notably shoulder injuries each season.

Still, Adams was named to the Pro Bowl and as a second team All-Pro pick in 2020 after making 9.5 sacks, the most for any defensive back in NFL history since sacks became an official stat in 1982.

That led to Seattle agreeing to sign Adams to a four-year contract last August worth up to $72.5 million, with $21 million fully guaranteed at signing.

That contract kicks in this year and includes salary cap numbers that increase significantly in the final three seasons of the deal in 2023, 2024 and 2025. However, there is no guaranteed salary beyond the 2022 season, according to OvertheCap.com.

More to the point is that the Seahawks hoped a pairing of a healthy Adams and Diggs, who suffered a dislocated ankle in the final game of the 2021 season at Arizona, will help revive a defense that struggled enough last season that Seattle fired coordinator Ken Norton Jr.

Diggs has been a full participant at practice the first two days and met the media afterward and said, “I feel good. I’m just right.”

Carroll was enthusiastic enough after Wednesday’s practice to call the pairing of Diggs at free safety and Adams at strong as good of a safety duo as there is in the NFL.

But for now, at least, Seattle will have to go a little while without Adams.

Veteran Ryan Neal filled in for Adams in practice Thursday, as he also did late last season, while veteran Josh Jones, who played four games for Seattle last year and re-signed in May, also rotated in at strong safety. Jones has 26 career NFL starts.

Dee Eskridge sits out with hamstring tightness

Second-year receiver Dee Eskridge sat out practice Thursday while dealing with hamstring soreness that also limited him Wednesday.

Carroll called it a “very, very, very, mild slight” injury, adding “it’s not even a pull. Just something that he felt, so just making sure we don’t overdo it too soon.”

Still, the injury is somewhat concerning considering that Eskridge also missed the team’s mandatory minicamp in June with a hamstring injury and has rarely been healthy since Seattle drafted him at 56 overall in 2021.

Eskridge dealt with a toe injury during the offseason program and training camp in 2021 and then suffered a concussion in the first regular-season game that held him out for seven games.

Eskridge was healthy during the early portions of the offseason program. The team was optimistic he had put the injury bug behind him and was on his way to emerging as a potential third receiver behind the star duo of Tyler Lockett and DK Metcalf.

With Eskridge out — and with Metcalf not taking part in practice as he was sorting out the final details of his contract extension with the team — the other receivers typically lining up with the first offense alongside Lockett were third-year vet Freddie Swain and Marquise Goodwin, who was signed as a free agent in May.

The Seahawks also are optimistic about seventh-round picks Bo Melton and Dareke Young, and either or both could take advantage of any absence from Eskridge.